Measuring hotness is not an exact science

Published: Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9:37 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9:37 p.m.

Among the vegetables in our garden pots this summer are lots of tomatoes, with a few peppers which were labeled “Super chilli” when I acquired them as tiny seedlings.

Their inch-long red pods tempted us to try them in salad or cooking, but wait.

Would they be peppery hot, and just how hot? Unable to discover a “heat” assessment on the Internet, we were reluctant to ruin a salad, or possibly to torture ourselves by a direct taste test.

So we bottled a handful in vinegar, aiming to use the juice as a peppery seasoning on field peas. And before that was ready to use, we got the results of a direct hotness “test” of the same “super chillies.”

I had shared surplus seedlings with my north Louisiana brother David. “I cut one open,” he said, “touched the raw edge to my tongue ... Hot? I could still feel the burn four hours later!”

He passed a pod on to Jeremy, his son, who consumed several slices as a sample.

“Medium hot.” He reported, sedately. But Jeremy is not your typical taster. His pepper heat tolerance is legend, routinely buying Tabasco by the gallon and dousing his meals with it. We stand ready to dilute our pepper vinegar before using it to spice up peas.

Together again: Those painless tests of our super peppers were among the unexpected benefits of attending the annual Collins family reunion. The event centers on relatives of my late maternal grandmother, Lois Collins Royston.

Years ago they began gathering each summer at her home in Natchitoches. Then after her passing, the same gathering became associated with the birthday of her surviving husband, Leo Royston, as he approached 100 years old.

For at least a dozen years now, since the old Royston home sold out of the family, the location has been the activity center of Zwolle’s First Baptist Church, where my sister Mary Anne Russell is an active member.

Mary Anne, David, Hammond brother Mark and I were all present, as were all our late mother’s surviving siblings.

Cousins, offspring of our grandmother’s siblings, joined us for barbecue and covered dishes. One Texas cousin “ranches” true longhorn cattle, including a steer with horns measuring almost 8 feet, point-to-point. Wisely, he left that pet at home.

Getting out: If you have studied a state highway map as I recommended, you likely confirmed what I warned, Terrebonne, Lafourche and their neighbors reside on an island.

We have the Gulf to our south, the Mississippi River to the east and north and the Atchafalaya to the north and west. Evacuation requires crossing one of those watery barriers, and the crossings are few.

Personally, because we will head for Natchitoches Parish, we never consider escaping to the east.

Those routes would already be crowded by New Orleans area evacuees, and we are less familiar with alternate highways.

Escaping to the west means crossing the Atchafalaya, and only when that has been accomplished are true alternate routes available. More on that later.

Iraq Attack: Featured speaker at the monthly Round Table sponsored by the Regional Military Museum is Col. Philemon A. St. Amant II, U.S. Army, retired. He will discuss the 1987 attack by an Iraqi warplane on the guided missile frigate USS Stark in neutral waters off Iraq’s coast.

St. Amant was among the official investigators of the incident, which killed 37 U.S. sailors and injured 21 more.

The round table is 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Main Library, 151 Library Drive in Houma.

Dulac Dance: This month it’s Saturday, with dinner and live music at the Dulac Knights of Columbus hall. Details coming soon.